Background: The use of biomass for cooking and heating is considered an important factor associated with respiratory diseases. However, few studies evaluate the amount of particulate matter less than 2.5 mu in diameter (PM2.5), symptoms and lung function in the same population. Objectives: To evaluate the respiratory effects of biomass combustion and compare the results with those of individuals from the same community in Brazil using liquefied petroleum gas (Gas). Methods: 1402 individuals in 260 residences were divided into three groups according to exposure (Gas, Indoor-Biomass, Outside-Biomass). Respiratory symptoms were assessed using questionnaires. Reflectance of paper filters was used to assess particulate matter exposure. In 48 residences the amount of PM2.5 was also quantified. Pulmonary function tests were performed in 120 individuals. Results: Reflectance index correlated directly with PM2.5 (r=0.92) and was used to estimate exposure (ePM2.5). There was a significant increase in ePM2.5 in Indoor-Biomass and Outside-Biomass, compared to Gas. There was a significantly increased odds ratio (OR) for cough, wheezing and dyspnea in adults exposed to Indoor-Biomass (OR=2.93, 2.33, 2.59, respectively) and Outside-Biomass (OR=1.78...

Questions: Grasslands are usually neglected as potential carbon stocks, partially due to the lack of studies on biomass and carbon dynamics in tropical grasslands. What is the importance of Brazilian tropical wet grasslands as carbon sinks? Does fire frequency and season affect biomass and carbon allocation in Brazilian wet grasslands? Location: Wet grasslands, tropical savanna, Jalapão, Tocantins, northern Brazil. Methods: We determined biomass above- and below-ground, estimated carbon stocks in biennially burned plots (B2) and plots excluded from fire for 4 yr (B4). Moreover, we determined biomass in both rainy and dry seasons. Samples were 0.25 m × 0.25 m × 0.2 m (eight samples per treatment, applying a nested design, total of 48 samples). The biomass was classified in above-ground graminoids, forbs and dead matter, and below-ground roots and other below-ground organs. We used ANOVA to compare variables between treatments and seasons. Results: More than 40% of the total biomass and carbon stocks were located below-ground, mostly in roots. A high proportion of dead biomass (B4) was found in the above-ground material, probably due to low decomposition rates and consequent accumulation over the years. Although these grasslands do not experience water stress...

Dissertação de mestrado em Bioinformática; The use of genome-scale metabolic models is rapidly increasing in fields such as metabolic engineering. An important part of a metabolic model is the biomass equation, since this reaction will be used as the objective function in most simulation approaches. In order to obtain a reliable metabolic model, the biomass precursors and their coefficients must be as precise as possible. Ideally, the determination of the biomass composition would be performed experimentally, but due to technical limitations in cellular components quantification, budget restraints and time limitations, this is often established by approximation to closely related organisms. Computational methods however, can extract some information from the genome, such as amino acid and nucleotide compositions.
One main objective in this study was to evaluate how biomass precursor coefficients computationally determined, affected the predictability of several genome-scale metabolic models by comparison with experimental data. Sensitivity analysis studies were performed with the Escherichia coli iAF1260 metabolic model concerning specific growth rate and flux distribution. Several metabolic models, whose biomass composition had been experimentally determined...

One of several procedures for estimating carbon stocks in forests is the estimation of tree or stand biomass based
on forest inventory data. The two approaches normally used to convert field measurements of trees to stand biomass
values are allometric biomass equations and biomass expansion factors (BEFs). BEFs are used in published National
Forest Inventory results in which biomass is not estimated or as a complement of growth models that do not include
biomass predictions. In this paper, the effectiveness of BEFs for estimating total stand biomass in Portuguese Eucalyptus
globulus plantations was analyzed. Here, BEF is defined as the ratio of total stand biomass (aboveground biomass plus
root biomass) to stand volume with bark. To calculate total biomass, an equation was developed to estimate root biomass
as a function of aboveground biomass. Changes of BEF with stand variables were analyzed. Strong relationships were
observed between BEF and stand age, stand basal area, stand volume and dominant height. Consequently, an equation
to predict BEF as a function of stand variables was fitted, and dominant height was selected as the predictor stand
variable. Estimates of total stand biomass based on individual tree allometric equations were compared with estimates
obtained with a constant BEF (0.77)...

Lignocellulosic biomass composes a diversity of feedstock raw materials representing an abundant and renewable carbon source. In majority lignocellulose is constituted by carbohydrate macromolecules, namely cellulose and hemicellulose, and by lignin, a polyphenilpropanoid macromolecule. Between these biomacromolecules, there are several covalent and non-covalent interactions defining an intricate, complex and rigid structure of lignocellulose. The deconstruction of the lignocellulosic biomass makes these fractions susceptible for easier transformation to large number of commodities including energy, chemicals and material within the concept of biorefinery. Generally, the biomass pre-treatment depends on the final goal in the biomass processing. The recalcitrance of lignocellulose materials is the main limitation of its processing once the inherent costs are excessively high for the conventional pre-treatments. Furthermore, none of the currently known processes is highly
selective and efficient for the satisfactory and versatile use, thus, new methodologies are still studied broadly. The ionic liquid technology on biomass processing is relatively recent and first studies were focused on the lignocellulosic biomass dissolution in different ionic liquids (ILs). The dissolution in IL drives to the structural changes in the regenerated biomass by reduction of cellulose crystallinity and lignin content contrasting to the original biomass. These findings provided ILs as tools to perform biomass pre-treatment and the advantageous use of their specific properties over the conventional pre-treatment processes. This review shows the critical outlook on the study of biomass dissolution and changes occurred in the biomass during this process as well as on the influence of several crucial parameters that govern the dissolution and further pre-treatment process. The review of currently known methods of biomass fractionation in IL and aqueous-IL mixtures is also discussed here and perspectives regarding these topics are given as well.

This handbook provides an overview of
the main topics that need consideration when managing the
supply of biomass to large biomass power plants. It will
help investors in China to develop, with assistance of local
biomass supply experts, their own solutions. The focus is on
biomass residues, in particular agricultural residues
(mainly straw and stalks) and forestry residues (mainly
residues from forestry operations). This handbook covers a
wide range of topics related to biomass fuel supply risk in
the planning and preparation stages for a biomass-fired
power plant. Chapter two introduces the use of biomass as an
energy source, including fuel selection considerations and
the fuel standards and specifications required to match a
particular fuel supply to a power generation system. Chapter
three describes the use of biomass resource assessments at
the project planning stage. Chapters four and five give
insight into the biomass supply from straw and forestry
residues, respectively. Finally, fuel supply management is
covered in chapter six...

In this paper, the authors seek to answer three questions about poverty and forests in Malawi: (1) What is the extent of biomass available for meeting the energy needs of the poor in Malawi and how is this distributed? (2) To what extent does fuelwood scarcity affect the welfare of the poor? (3) How do households cope with scarcity? In particular, do households spend more time in fuelwood collection and less time in agriculture in response to scarcity? The authors attempt to answer these questions using household and remote-sensing data. They find that 80 percent of rural poor households in Malawi are likely to benefit from an increase in biomass per hectare in their community. Rural women respond to biomass scarcity by increasing the time they spend on fuelwood collection. But the actual decrease in consumption expenditure and increase in time in fuelwood collection are small and biomass scarcity is not associated with a reduction in agricultural labor supply.

Over the past two decades, the Energy
Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP) has financed
several projects to assist Bolivia in the development of its
energy sector, including the Bolivia Country Program First
Phase, which contributed to the design of a national energy
plan, the definition of policies and actions applicable to
rural energy and energy efficiency, and a significant
structural reform of the energy sector, and also supported
the preparation of the Bolivia National Biomass Program
(NBP) aimed at enhancing the efficient use of biomass as an
energy source, while improving the quality of life of the
rural population -- in consistence with the objectives of
the World Bank Country Assistance Strategy (CAS) in Bolivia
regarding accelerated growth and development of private
sector activities. An agreement subscribed in November 1997
between the Government of the Netherlands and the World Bank
assigned the execution of NBP to ESMAP, with the Vice
Ministry of Energy and Hydrocarbons (VMEH) as its
counterpart in Bolivia.

Soil salinity is a serious land degradation problem which reduces plant growth and microbial activity due to (1) low osmotic potential which causes plant water stress, and (2) ion toxicity and ion imbalances (nutrient deficiencies) as result of high salt concentrations in the soil solution. Therefore, salinity affects organic matter turnover by influencing the amount of organic matter input in the soil and decomposition rate. Microbial activity and biomass in saline soils have been extensively studied, but a little is known about the effect of organic carbon (OC) addition on adaptation of soil microbes to salinity. The objective of this thesis was to determine the effect of OC availability on adaptation of soil microbial activity and biomass to salinity. In most experiments described in this thesis, one non-saline and four saline soils from the field with similar texture (sandy clay loam) and electrical conductivities in a 1:5 soil: water extract (EC₁﹕₅) of 0.1, 1.1, 3.1 and 5.2 dS m⁻¹ or electrical conductivity of the saturation extract (ECₑ) of 1, 11, 24 and 43 dS m⁻¹ were used. In other experiments a non-saline loamy sand was amended with NaCl to achieve a range of EC levels. The optimum water content for respiration was determined by incubating the soils amended with glucose at different water contents and measuring the respiration for 10 days at 25ºC. Glucose...

Salinization is a serious land degradation problem because osmotic stress and toxic ions cause poor plant growth and low soil microbial activity. The effect of salinity on soil microbes has been studied previously, but usually at constant salinity. However, in the field salinity may vary over time. Another factor influencing the effect of salinity on soil microbes is the soil water content. The osmotic potential, which is a measure of the salt concentration in the soil solution, increases as soils dry. The aim of the experiments described in this thesis was to assess how soil microbial activity and microbial biomass respond to changes in soil salinity and soil water content. One non-saline and four saline soils from Monarto, South Australia (35° 05´ S and 139° 06´ E) were used in the experiments. Soils were air-dried after collection. In some experiments, salinity was induced by adding certain amount of NaCl (dissolved in RO water), or decreased by leaching. Preliminary experiments were carried out to quantify the salts or water needed to reach the desired salinity. Pea (Pisum sativum L.) straw (C/N=26) was used as available substrate in most experiments except for experiments in Chapter four, where glucose was used. Soil CO₂ release (respiration as measure of microbial activity) was measured daily throughout each experimental period...

Many texture measures have been developed and used for improving land-cover classification accuracy, but rarely has research examined the role of textures in improving the performance of aboveground biomass estimations. The relationship between texture and biomass is poorly understood. This paper used Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) data to explore relationships between TM image textures and aboveground biomass in Rondônia, Brazilian Amazon. Eight grey level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM) based texture measures (i.e., mean, variance, homogeneity, contrast, dissimilarity, entropy, second moment, and correlation), associated with seven different window sizes (5x5, 7x7, 9x9, 11x11, 15x15, 19x19, and 25x25), and five TM bands (TM 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7) were analyzed. Pearson's correlation coefficient was used to analyze texture and biomass relationships. This research indicates that most textures are weakly correlated with successional vegetation biomass, but some textures are significantly correlated with mature forest biomass. In contrast, TM spectral signatures are significantly correlated with successional vegetation biomass, but weakly correlated with mature forest biomass. Our findings imply that textures may be critical in improving mature forest biomass estimation...

Erosion is deleterious because it reduces the soil's productivity capacity for growing crops and causes sedimentation and water pollution problems. Surface and buried crop residue, as well as live and dead plant roots, play an important role in erosion control. An efficient way to assess the effectiveness of such materials in erosion reduction is by means of decomposition constants as used within the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation - RUSLE's prior-land-use subfactor - PLU. This was investigated using simulated rainfall on a 0.12 m m-1 slope, sandy loam Paleudult soil, at the Agriculture Experimental Station of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, in Eldorado do Sul, State of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The study area had been covered by native grass pasture for about fifteen years. By the middle of March 1996, the sod was mechanically mowed and the crop residue removed from the field. Late in April 1996, the sod was chemically desiccated with herbicide and, about one month later, the following treatments were established and evaluated for sod biomass decomposition and soil erosion, from June 1996 to May 1998, on duplicated 3.5 x 11.0 m erosion plots: (a) and (b) soil without tillage, with surface residue and dead roots; (c) soil without tillage...

7 pages, 6 figures, 3 tables. -- Available online 4 July 2008. -- Issue title: CSCOP-TSOP-ICCP 2007: Selected papers from the 2007 joint meeting of CSCOP-TSOP-ICCP: Unconventional petroleum systems & advances in organic petrology and geochemistry (Victoria BC, Sunday, August 19th to Saturday August 25th, 2007); Partial substitution of coal by biomass in combustion systems in conjunction with advanced technologies for CO2 capture and storage may result in a significant reduction of greenhouse gases emissions. This study investigates three biomass chars produced from rice husk, forest residuals and wood chips under N2 and CO2 atmospheres using a drop tube furnace (DTF) heated at 950 °C. The char constitutes an unburned residue which has been devolatilized under conditions resembling in thermal history those in full scale boilers. Higher weight losses were achieved under N2 than under CO2 for each type of biomass, and the highest weight loss was that of wood chips biomass, followed by forest residuals and then rice husk. The results indicate significant morphological differences between the biomass chars produced. The wood chips yielded thick-walled chars with a cenospheric shape very similar to those of low-rank vitrinite. The forest residual chars were angular in shape and often had a tenuinetwork structure...

This Masters Project identifies the University’s biomass fuelshed and locates potential supply sources and probable fuel quantities. An Excel workbook couples user-defined transportation, processing, collection and handling, and purchase premium expenses within fuel classes to establish probable purchase costs for each supply source. Results are optimized for a lowest cost fuel mix to meet modeled plant demand based on user defined plant parameters. Finally, total biomass fuel costs are compared to fossil options to determine if biomass is a financially justifiable fuel for Duke to pursue.
The results of this study indicate that the university fuelshed likely contains supply for more than 4 times the steam plants fuel requirements. The cost per million British thermal units combusted within the fuelshed is highly variable, ranging from approximately $1.01 for construction / demolition material to over $29 for forest thinnings. Several fuel classes are more economic than current prices for natural gas, ranging from less than a quarter to three quarters of the price of natural gas.
The preliminary assessments of purchasing biomass fuel for use in the plant resulted in costs significantly lower than natural gas, and even potentially lower than coal. It is anticipated that the annual fuel costs for a biomass plant could be met for around $2.25 million based on plant parameters modeled and the estimated biomass characteristics (collection...

Across North Carolina, forest species composition has changed substantially over the past 35 years. Oak species have declined while other species, especially red maple and sweetgum have proliferated. This general trend is seen across the state of North Carolina, though each of the four physiographic regions of the state has different factors that contribute to the specie composition changes. Within oak stands, competition in the understory and midstory can significantly reduce oak regeneration. Mitigating competition with oak species through TSI can generate biomass for energy. This project explores potential connections between oak regeneration through conservation forestry and timber stand improvement operations that target red maple and sweetgum removals for biomass energy. This project quantifies small-diameter biomass of red maple and sweetgum trees in oak dominated stands across North Carolina.
Biomass supply estimates typically focus on available residues from forest harvests or from overstocked stands. This report is the first to focus on biomass available from restoration activities in hardwood stands. The standing stock of small diameter red maple and sweetgum is approximately 18,000,000 tons in North Carolina, or 725...

Microalgae are generally considered as a promising biomass source for applications including production of advanced biofuels, chemicals, wastewater treatments, various organic substances or a combination of any of the above. The advantages of microalgae includes faster growth rates than terrestrial plants, ability to use non-arable land for mass production, and their ability to grow in poor quality water, as well as their ability to remove pollutants from wastewater streams. However, one of the major challenges of microalgae for commercialisation to is its economic downstream production and conversion to biofuels and chemicals. When harvested, microalgae contains up to ~90% water content, thus economic conversion of high moisture content biomass to valuable products such as biofuels remains a challenge. Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) involves processing of high moisture content biomass in hot compressed water, avoiding the drying step for biomass feedstocks. Therefore HTL is advantageous as it avoids the energy intensive drying process in contrast to processes that involve drying of biomass prior to processing into biofuels. HTL products comprise biocrude, solid residues, aqueous and gas phases. The primary product biocrude is upgradable to liquid transportation fuels. The aqueous phase contains essential nutrients that could be recycled to microalgae cultivation ponds. The gas phase contains about 98mol% carbon dioxide (CO₂) and 2mol% hydrocarbon gases. The gas phase can also be directly recycled to the microalgae cultivation ponds for pH control and supply of CO₂...